MySQL Reserved Words

The database language MySQL has a number of reserved words that should not be used in queries or for field names. Some of the big ones are:

• Add
• All
• Between
• Both
• Check
• Current_Date
• Drop
• For
• From
• Group
• INT
• Key
• Load
• Lock
• Null
• On
• Out
• Real
• Repeat
• Table
• Use
• Write

And so it goes. I came across the official list when I couldn’t work out why this query wouldn’t work:
[SQL]SELECT COUNT(id) FROM messages WHERE read = ‘0′ AND to = $logged_in_id[/SQL]

The reason? Both “to” and “read” are reserved words and the query failed. See the full list here:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/reserved-words.html